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3 ECHO Training

The CAFD partnered with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa to bring an incredible training opportunity to area Police, Fire and EMS personnel. The training is called 3 ECHO, and it primarily focuses on the initial 30 minutes of a response to what may be the most difficult call any of us will ever face, a hostile event.A total of 41 students representing various local agencies attended this 12 hour training on how to integrate Police, Fire and EMS responders into a cohesive and effective team when called to a hostile event. The initial 4 hours were spent reviewing past incidents, types of situations, devices used, and lessons learned from those incidents. The next 8 hours focused on placing responders into very realistic scenarios with victims, assailants, debris, simulated gun fire and smoke.We regularly see reports of incidents in the news where someone or some group tries to intentionally hurt or kill many people, and we know that we need to be prepared in case it happens in our community. The training that the CAFD members as well as local law enforcement and nearby Fire and EMS departments have received from the 3 ECHO instructors is the best known and most current model of saving lives in these types of incidents.The CAFD applied for the use of federal grant money that was used to cover approximately 1/3 of the $25,000 cost of this training program. We would like to thank the following agencies and businesses who funded the remaining amount:The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior ChippewaThe Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux CommunitySappi Fine PaperWalmartWe would also like to thank Community Memorial Hospital for supporting this training through the use of their classroom for the evening.Finally we would like to thank students from the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College Law Enforcement program and students from the Fire program at Lake Superior College for donating their time to act as victims and assailants.